Apple’s new CEO shakes things up: Ternus urges Federighi to “boldly develop AI”

Apple's new CEO Ternus is urging Federighi to boldly advance AI and upgrade Siri into an autonomous intelligent agent, but Federighi is seen as an AI skeptic, and management inertia is causing Apple's AI transformation to continue falling behind.

Author and source: AIBase

In the November 8 Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Gurman revealed that Apple's new CEO John Ternus is urging software engineering chief Craig Federighi to accelerate AI development, adopt a bolder strategy, and upgrade Siri into an AI agent capable of autonomously performing tasks for users. This sense of urgency is in stark contrast to Ternus's relaxed tone during last week's earnings call, where he praised the new version of Siri for finally achieving years of vision and said he was "very satisfied" with the feedback.

But behind closed doors, Ternus is acutely aware that Apple still lags far behind its competitors. At a closed-door meeting a few weeks ago, he expressed his dissatisfaction with Federighi for not embracing AI as proactively as his peers and demanded that development no longer be limited to necessary upgrades for Siri.

The shackles of an AI skeptic

Caught between the CEO's expectations and industry trends is Federighi's long-standing management inertia. He is still regarded as an AI skeptic, concerned about the impact on privacy, security, society, and employment. When making decisions, he is used to getting personally involved and engaging in fierce debate with opponents, often rejecting opposing proposals based on his familiarity with technical details, which leads some employees to feel that influencing product direction is difficult.

What is even more challenging is the mismatch in pace—he usually only plans for the next 12 to 18 months, while the hardware department is used to planning years ahead. The two different tempos are hard to align, which slows down development and weakens the boldness of first-generation products. Apple wants to better integrate hardware with AI software, and how to reconcile these two planning cycles is the tough challenge that Ternus must tackle. However, Federighi does have some achievements: last year, after Giannandrea failed to deliver on Siri's promise, it was Federighi who took over and released a functioning new assistant in a relatively short period.